Before title pages, early printers put their names, dates and boasts at the end of a book in the colophon. Alfred W. Pollard of the British Museum explains why colophons existed and gathers specimens with translations from Mainz, Venice and other printing towns, including advertisements of cheapness and the verse puff for Marnef’s edition of The Ship of Fools.
A delightful, learned study for bibliophiles and historians of printing. Download the free EPUB.